Detroit Tigers: 3 former players failing miserably on their new teams

The Detroit Tigers have quite a few former players faltering on new teams

The Detroit Tigers overhauled their roster this past offseason. New president of baseball operations Scott Harris came in and trimmed the fat off this roster. Players that had been staples of the team during the Al Avila era are now gone.

Many of the players that were cut signed minor league deals with other teams, which tells you how the rest of the league felt about the players Al Avila liked. Victor Reyes, Willi Castro, and Harold Castro were among the players that signed minor league contracts with other teams.

None of these players have really done very well with their new teams, again signifying how bad the talent on this team was during the Al Avila era. Today, we’re going to highlight a few of those players. Let’s get started.

INF Harold Castro—Colorado Rockies

Hittin’ Harold signed a minor league deal with an invite to spring training with the Colorado Rockies this offseason. Due to injuries in their infield, he was able to score a spot on their Opening Day roster. He’s since been starting fairly regularly for them after a potential season-ending injury to second baseman Brendan Rodgers.

We know Harold was a bit of a fan favorite here in Detroit, so we’re happy to see him starting a big league club. However, we’d be lying if we said he’d been playing well, because he simply hasn’t been.

Castro has been pretty dreadful for the Rockies so far this year. He’s slashing .236/.254/.273 with no home runs. That’s good for a 27 wRC+, which is pretty awful. He has just two extra-base hits so far this season. He’s also not walking, which was a problem for him in Detroit as well.

Castro as been worth -0.4 fWAR for the Rockies this season, already matching what he was worth with the Tigers last year. These are the kind of players Scott Harris made a point to remove from the roster. For his career, Castro is worth a combined -1.3 fWAR.

Hittin’ Harold could be a fun player when he was in a Tigers uniform. His ability to put the ball in play was quite impressive. But his lack of power combined with his lack of plate disclpine and subpar defense make him a below replacement level player. Moving on from him was a good move for Scott Harris and the Detroit Tigers.

3B Jeimer Candelario—Washington Nationals

Candy had a lot of promise following the 2021 season, where he almost put up a 4-WAR season. But his 2022 was a disaster, as he was also below replacement level. He had a year of team control left, but Harris opted to non-tender him this offseason, making him a free agent.

He ended up signing with a rebuilding Nationals team on a one-year, $5.5 million deal. He was pegged to be their starting third baseman. So far, it’s been more of the same for Candelario.

He got off to a good start, but has cooled off considerably. He’s currently slashing .221/.268/.366 with four home runs and a 70 wRC+. His walk rate is a career-low 4.5%.

There was a lot of talk amongst Tigers fans when they let him go and opted to not really fill the void he left. They’ve been platooning at that position with players such as Nick Maton and Andy Ibanez. Tigers third baseman have not been very good this season, but keeping Candelario around would not have been much of an upgrade.

Candelario chose to bet on himself this offseason, and while it’s still early, that bet has not paid off so far. He’s a good guy and I was personally a fan of his for a while, so I hope he’s able to turn it around.